There are three overlapping weapon efficacy ranges in Fortnite; Long Range, Mid Range, and Short Range. Generally speaking, Long Range includes snipers and scoped rifles. Mid Range includes un-scoped assault rifles and pistols. Short Range includes Shotguns and SMGs. But as is the case with many Fortnite seasons, the weapons don't always fall neatly into each category. 

This season Fortnite provides us with the Flapjack, Havoc Suppressed, MK-Alpha AR, Shadow Tracker, Tactical Pistol, Thermal DMR, and Combat SMG. Each of these weapon options come with their own strengths and weaknesses and in this article with the help of some weapons stats we are going to help evaluate each one. 

Two important points before we get in the weeds...

1. Mid-range can be a bit of a gray area

Before we get into the details, let me first acknowledge that not all these weapons fall neatly into the mid range category but all of which have the potential to be effective in this domain. In order to make sense of the options let's put them on the following spectrum.

2. Two Gun vs. Three Gun load out can materially change your calculus

In this limited mobility season, two gun load outs are increasingly common as players fill out more slots with cover (ie.bunkers), heals (blue and green health), and mobility (ie. shockwaves). This in many cases can mean that players opt for two gun load outs rather than three making a traditional mid range weapon the unfortunately casualty of this decision. For the purposes of this blog we will focus predominantly on three gun loadouts. However, if you are going to carry two guns you should seriously consider the MK Alpha along a Combat SMG or Shotgun, as the MK provides an incredible amount of versatility and efficacy, which we will prove out.

Let's get in the weeds...

The first thing I like to evaluate is the TtK of each of the weapons. This is the time it takes to down a full health opponent using body shots with 100% accuracy, this is a rough performance bench mark for these types of weapons. 

Somewhat surprisingly, most mid range weapons perform similarly on TtK. There are small variations but for practical purposes they are the same when we consider Damage per Round (DPR), Fire Rate (Rounds per Second), and Reload time. There are two outliers in the chart, the Combat SMG and the Havoc Suppressed. Lagging its peers by 20% is a serious cause for concern and will leave players feeling like the weapon let them down. Only consider carrying this weapon in emergency/early game situations. On the other hand, the Combat SMG outperforms it's peers by 20% making it an interesting consideration for this peer group. It clearly does not have comparable range to the Havoc suppressed for example but does compare pretty closely to the pistol or flapjack. 

Having ruled out the Havoc Suppressed and ruled in the Combat SMG let's consider some of the nuance of the weapons that are clustered together.

• MK Alpha: Red dot scope, Non-projectile weapon, longest practical range out of the group.
• Thermal DMR: This projectile based weapon is almost unusable at the limits of its range or against a highly mobile opponent. However, at closer ranges the Thermal vision capabilities and hard hitting rounds can be effective.
• Tactical Pistol and Shadow Tracker: Upgraded to be automatic with a higher fire rate, add in its ability to ping opponent locations and remain silent while doing so, the shadow tracker is effectively a mythic pistol with useful extras, making it the clear choice of the Tac pistol.
• Flapjack: The flapjack isn't any more accurate than the pistol but comparatively the flapjack has a massive mag capable of dealing out 2.3x more damage (over the pistol) to opponents before it has to reload. Additionally, the flapjack has a ~30% advantage in structure damage per round making it a formidable structure buster.

Let's use Accuracy Adjusted TTK...

The one drawback of TTK is that it assumes perfect accuracy, a best case scenario. In order to further pressure test this figure we created an accuracy adjusted TTK figure to take into account more realistic levels of accuracy, in this case 50%. 

When we consider lower levels of accuracy, there is no question that a gap in performance appears between the Pistols and the rest of the group. This data paired with the much greater mag damage and similar bloom dynamics of the flapjack rifle should push the pistol out of most loadouts. 

What are our mid-range conclusions...

Using the data above and our in game understanding of the weapons, we can conclude the following about each weapon: 

• MK Alpha vs. Thermal DMR: There is little doubt that when factoring in the superior accuracy and similar damage capabilities. The MK is the obvious choice. 
• Flapjack vs. Pistols: The flapjack's superior mag damage, similar bloom dynamics, and better accuracy adjusted TTK put it far ahead of the pistol.
• Combat SMG: With class leading performance stats this weapon deserves to get a consideration in more loadouts, especially because the MK can be used at an overlapping range with the Flapjack.

Given the head to head comparisons there are really only a few three gun load outs that make sense:

1. MK Alpha + Combat SMG + Shotgun
2. MK Alpha + Flapjack + Shotgun

For two gun load outs it's very likely the MK Alpha + Shotgun.

Thanks for reading! Please feel free to reach out with feedback or requests on  twitter or on Instagram @hioutput_gaming.